DALLAS –– Rick Adelman is brewing something special with the Minnesota Timberwolves. So much so that one might wonder if a certain Buss family in L.A. might regret not hiring their former Sacramento adversary when they had the chance.

No one in Minneapolis is complaining.

After Monday night’s impressive 90-82 road victory against the Dallas Mavericks, the “Wonder-Wolves” are off to a 5-2 start despite having nearly as many players injured as games played. Everybody knew the team would be without stars Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love to start the season. But, with each passing game another player goes down with an injured body part.

Brandon Roy. J.J. Barea. Chase Budinger. That’s five rotation players, four starters when counting Rubio and Love, that were not available when Minnesota suited up in Dallas. Yet, they led 45-39 at the half and went up by 13 in the third quarter shortly before yet another Wolves player went down. Center Nikola Pekovic, in the process of punishing Dallas in the paint with 20 points, sprained an ankle and limped to the locker room — done for the night.

Still, the Wolves held tight and never allowed the Mavs, smarting from their own injury woes with Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion nursing knee injuries, to get closer than six points down the stretch. A glance at the box score would hardly indicate a depleted roster: Five players scored in double figures — with the Russian duo of Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved each going for 16 — they shot 46.2 percent from the floor, got to the free throw line 32 times and outrebounded Dallas 49-35.

Adelman said he hopes Roy and Barea can return for Wednesday’s home game against Charlotte. Pekovic reported after the game that his ankle is not bad, but he didn’t care to put a timetable on any possible absence. At this rate, even Adelman can only shake his head in disbelief.

“We have three point guards and three centers, and our roster is kind of not great right now,” Adelman said before the game, semi-joking about the first part of the sentence and not at all about the latter. “But you just have to get through it and you have to keep the team believing that they can go out and win, because you can.”

I’m absolutely loving this team. They just don’t give up. I really would like them to get a championship, and I also believe they could be up in the top 5 in the West, especially when they get all their stars back. Keep it up, man!

Same as Adelman’s Houston (or is it Roy’s Blazers? LOL)… But I still cheer for this team. Hopefully they’ll have a healthy roster coming to the playoffs. Its good that AK47 is back to his good days, and hopefully Roy would overcome his shooting woes and would be productive enough even in limited minutes off the bench. But most of all, that certain #2 pick should live up to his potential. Not yet a championship-caliber team, but an exciting team to watch nevertheless.